Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust has announced its plans for a new Scunthorpe General Hospital Emergency Department.
Funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, and now approved by North Lincolnshire Council planners, the multi-million pound development will include a new A&E department, as well as a bespoke Acute Assessment Unit (AAU).
The new AAU will be staffed by specialists in a range of conditions, with the hope that it will allow patients to be seen and treated more swiftly but without the need to be admitted to a ward.
Set to be built on an existing site being used for parking and offices, the development is expected to include:
- An increased waiting area for social distancing requirements.
- A dedicated play area for younger patients.
- More cubicles for flexible use, to manage any surges in patient numbers.
- A dedicated ambulance bay.
The first stage of the development will see a new single-storey decked parking area created at one of the entrances to the site, with work due to start in April. An old office block will also need to be demolished, leading to calls from the trust for anyone with photos of the building to get in touch and share them.
Director of Estates and Facilities, Jug Johal, the Senior Responsible Officer, said: “The improvements we will make will help us to lower waiting times in A&E and diagnose patients more quickly as a result of faster access to specialist clinicians.
“The number one priority for our teams is to give you the best possible care and these works will give them the space, equipment and facilities you need to do that and to ensure we got this right, we have worked closely with clinical colleagues throughout the design process.”
In addition, the trust has also been awarded £40.3 million from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to start on energy improvement schemes at its three main hospital sites across Goole, Scunthorpe and Grimsby.
A walk-through video of the new A&E and AAU plans can be viewed on Vimeo. And anyone who wishes to share photos of the old site can be post on the trust’s Facebook page.
